The teams projected to be over the $70,307,000 luxury tax threshold in 2010 include Boston ($77.8 million, assuming Sheed got nothing), Dallas ($84.5 million), Denver $83.8 million), Houston ($73.6 million after the Trevor Ariza/Courtney Lee trade), the L.A. Lakers ($91.9 million before Shannon Brown), Orlando ($92.6 million), Portland ($72.8 million) and Utah ($75.3 million). Some of those teams will never get under the tax threshold, and some of them won't try. But some will, and even those that don't make it will probably pawn off excess salary onto the teams with cap space they're otherwise struggling to use. Here are some such dumps that I'm officially predicting, apart from the ones that I'm not.

- It's not that Przybilla can't play. He can. Przybilla has been a good player ever since he learnt to gets his rebounds per game average above his fouls per game average, and after six years with them, Portland know that as well as anyone. However, Przybilla is recovering from a broken kneecap, and while he aims to return for opening night, it might be a tough ask. And when Portland return to full health, Przybilla is struggling to find a role. With Greg Oden and Marcus Camby on board, and assuming both are fully healthy - an ambitious ask for both of them - Przybilla has no role to fit. It'd be great to keep him anyway, since you can never have enough quality size, particularly when you have such health concerns amongst your big men. However, Portland are also $2.4 million over the luxury tax threshold, even before Patty Mills signs. Prizz, as the non-core luxury excess veteran player thing, is the obvious candidate to be moved to help get them under it. How much money they can take back is dependent on whether the Blazers finally concede that Chicago's offer of a future first round pick for Moody Fernandez is more than fair. (Which it is. But hey, if you want to keep him and see his value get any lower, be my guest.)

Joel Przybilla also had a trade kicker, invoked upon his trade to the Bobcats, and Peja Stojakovic's trade bonus was invoked upon his trade to Toronto, about a month before the deadline. Additionally, Lou Amundson's deal with Golden State, signed after the publish date of the original post, also contained a 15% trade kicker, as did Shannon Brown's new contract with the L.A. Lakers.

Note: Non-US teams that the player
has played for are, unless stated otherwise, from the top division in
that nation. If a league or division name is expressly stated, it's not
the top division. The only exceptions to this are the rare occasions where
no one league is said to be above the other, such as with the JBL/BJ League
split in Japan.

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